A lot or a little?

The parents' guide to what's in this movie.

Ending up with the wrong person can make you miserable, but love is out there if you're able to recognize it when it appears.

Positive Role Models & Representations

Alex and Rosie spend years dancing around the fact that they care for each other, but eventually they're honest about their feelings.

Violence

A few arguments; one scene shows a woman punching her husband when she finds him with another woman.

Sex

Some discussions about sex, especially how and when high school students lose their virginity. A brief sex scene shows a woman in her bra. Much of the film deals with the unplanned pregnancy that results (the condom came off) and how raising a child disrupts your life. A couple is caught in bed together (nothing graphic shown).

Language

A fair amount of swearing, especially "f--k" and "s--t," as well as British slang like "wanker" and "bollocks."

Consumerism

Drinking, Drugs & Smoking

Several scenes include people drinking -- at bars and nightclubs, at meals, and while hanging out with friends. In an early scene, a teen girl drinks to the point of passing out. Some characters smoke cigarettes.

What parents need to know

Parents need to know that Love, Rosie is all about long-distance, long-term, unrequited love. Several scenes feature teens talking about losing their virginity/having sex, and there's one quick scene in which two of them actually do the deed (a girl is shown in her bra, and an unintended pregnancy results). There's also a fair bit of drinking (including a teen drinking until she passes out) and some smoking, as well as plenty of swearing, notably "f--k" and "s--t." But this tale of recognizing love -- and acting on that realization -- will resonate with older teens and up.

What's the story?

Rosie (Lily Collins) and Alex (Sam Claflin) have been best friends since childhood. As high school ends, she's starting to recognize that there may be feelings besides friendship between them. But she doesn't get the chance to find out for sure, because he heads to Boston to study at Harvard, while she stays put in England, where an unplanned pregnancy puts the kibosh on her own college plans. As the years pass and other romantic partners move in and out of both their lives, Rosie must decide whether Alex is her soulmate -- and, if so, what should she do about it.

Is it any good?

Collins and Claflin are appealing enough, but their characters' chase for happiness doesn't compel. So much of what keeps them from their destiny seems manufactured and, after a fashion, uninteresting. When the stakes are clearly set from the get-go and the barriers obvious, there's not much momentum to get you to the expected conclusion.

Most romantic movies explore whether characters are meant to be and how they'll find out. In LOVE, ROSIE (based on the novel by Cecelia Ahern), it's clear from the start that Rosie is supposed to be with Alex, and vice versa. That means, then, that viewers spend the entire movie watching them apart, making one wayward decision after another. In abler hands, the pursuit could have been fascinating, but here it's infuriating and frustrating.

Common Sense is the nation's leading nonprofit organization dedicated to improving the lives of kids and families by providing the trustworthy information, education, and independent voice they need to thrive in the 21st century.

Headquartered in San Francisco, with offices in Los Angeles, New York, and Washington, D.C.

Help center

Follow Common Sense Media

Common Sense, Common Sense Media, Common Sense Education, and Common Sense Kids Action, associated names, associated trademarks, and logos are trademarks of Common Sense Media, a 501(c)(3) nonprofit organization (FEIN 41-2024986).